One of the most interesting things about a new language is connecting vocabulary in that language with vocabulary in languages I’m already familiar with. I still recall, when I was learning elementary Thai in college, I did not face the same challenge that my peers did, in learning to rattle off the days of the week. The reason: Sanskrit.
The planet-based naming system
Both Burmese and Thai have borrowed from Sanskrit for names of the days of the week. Like most Southeast Asian systems, the Burmese and Thai naming systems are based on the classical planets of Hindu astrology (English also uses this planetary system for the days of the week). In fact, this Indic planet-based naming system is widespread throughout Southeast Asia, used in most major Southeast Asian languages, including Burmese, Lao, Khmer, Thai, Javanese and Balinese.
Each day of the week is represented by the following planets, with Sanskrit and Pali equivalents provided below:
Day | Planet | Sanskrit | Pali |
---|---|---|---|
Sunday | Sun | Ādityavāra [1] အာဒိတျဝါရ |
Ravivāra ရဝိဝါရ |
Monday | Moon | Candravāra [2] စန္ဒြဝါရ |
Candavāra စန္ဒဝါရ |
Tuesday | Mars | Aṅgāravāra [3] အံဂါရဝါရ |
Kujavāra ကုဇဝါရ |
Wednesday | Mercury | Budhavāra ဗုဒ္ဓဝါရ |
Budhavāra ဗုဒ္ဓဝါရ |
Thursday | Jupiter | Bṛhaspativāra [4] ဗၖဟသ္ပတိဝါရ |
Guruvāra ဂုရုဝါရ |
Friday | Venus | Śukravāra ၐုကြဝါရ |
Sukkavāra သုက္ကဝါရ |
Saturday | Saturn | Śanivāra ၐနိဝါရ |
Sanivāra သနိဝါရ |
[1] Also Ravivāra, which is preferred in South Asian languages.
[2] Also Somavāra, which is preferred in South Asian and insular Southeast Asian languages.
[3] Also Maṅgalavāra, which is preferred in South Asian languages.
[4] Also Guruvāra, which is preferred in South Asian languages.
Etymological basis for days of the week
Etymology offers a window into the histories of the languages and peoples that speak them. While I could make out the correspondence between Burmese and Thai for most days of the week, two days stumped me: Sunday and Monday. Little did I know that this irregularity was due to vestiges of old Burmese in the Burmese terms for Sunday and Monday.
Below is an examination of the borrowings in Burmese and Thai, alongside other regional languages including Mon and Khmer, Lao and Shan. For the purposes of legibility, the word for ‘day’ has been omitted from the comparisons below. Burmese follows Pali and Sanskrit syntax in that the word for ‘day’ is suffixed to the planet name, while in the others (Khmer, Mon, Thai, Lao, and Shan), the word for ‘day’ is prefixed to the planet name.
Language | Word for ‘day’ | Pronunciation (IPA) |
---|---|---|
Pali | —vāra or —varo | |
Sanskrit | —vāra | |
Burmese | —နေ့ | /nḛ/ |
Khmer | ថ្ងៃ— | /tŋay/ |
Mon | တ္ၚဲ— | /ŋoa/ |
Thai | วัน— | /wan/ |
Lao | ວັນ— | /wán/ |
Shan | ဝၼ်း— | /wan4/ |
Sunday
Sunday literally means “Sun’s day” in English. Except for Burmese, the others have borrowed from the Sanskrit word for ‘sun,’ āditya.
SANSKRIT |
⟶ |
KHMER |
MON |
||
THAI |
||
LAO |
||
SHAN |
Burmese, as the sole outlier, continues to use a descendant of an Old Burmese word, which is attested to in Pagan-era stone inscriptions. According to linguist Pho Lat, the word tanin (တန်နှင် > တနင်) means ‘day,’ while ganwe (ကုနုယ် > ဂနွေ) means ‘sun.’ The latter term has striking similarity to the Mon word for ‘day’ and ‘sun,’ while the former resembles the spelling of a Pali word for ‘sun,’ uṇhagū.
OLD BURMESE |
⟶ |
BURMESE |
Monday
Sunday literally means “Moon’s day” in English. Except for Burmese, the others have borrowed from the Sanskrit word for ‘moon,’ candra.
SANSKRIT |
⟶ |
KHMER |
MON |
||
THAI |
||
LAO |
||
SHAN |
Going against the grain, here too, Burmese continues to use a descendant of the old Burmese word for ‘Monday.’ According to linguist Pho Lat, the word tanin (တန်နှင် > တနင်) means ‘day,’ while la (လာ) means ‘moon.’
OLD BURMESE |
⟶ |
BURMESE |
Tuesday
Tuesday literally means “Mars’ day” in English. All have borrowed from the Sanskrit word for ‘Mars,’ Aṅgāra. All have also reduced the syllabic count from 3 to 2.
SANSKRIT |
⟶ |
BURMESE |
KHMER |
||
MON |
||
THAI |
||
LAO |
||
SHAN |
Wednesday
Wednesday literally means “Mercury’s day” in English. All have borrowed from the Sanskrit word for ‘Mercury’s day,’ Budhavāra. While Khmer, Thai, Lao and Shan have have reduced the syllabic count substantially (in both the written and spoken forms), Burmese and Mon both still retain 3 syllables.
SANSKRIT |
⟶ |
BURMESE |
KHMER |
||
MON |
||
THAI |
||
LAO |
||
SHAN |
Thursday
Thursday literally means “Jupiter’s day” in English. All have borrowed from the Sanskrit word for ‘Jupiter,’ Bṛhaspati. In written Burmese, Khmer and Thai, the original long form is spelled out completely. In Burmese, the original ‘br’ sound may have elided into a ‘ky’ sound, as it is the only language whose word for Thursday does not begin with a ‘p’ sound. Shan and Lao have substantially reduced their spoken forms, to one or two syllables.
SANSKRIT |
⟶ |
BURMESE |
KHMER |
||
MON |
||
THAI |
||
LAO |
||
SHAN |
[1] Commonly abbreviated to พฤหัส /pʰá.rʉ́ˈhàt/.
Friday
Friday literally means “Venus’ day” in English. All have borrowed from the Sanskrit word for ‘Venus,’ Śukra. With the exception of Burmese, all the other languages have reduced the syllabic count to a single syllable in the spoken form. Both Thai and Khmer still spell out the second syllable in the written form.
SANSKRIT |
⟶ |
BURMESE |
KHMER |
||
MON |
||
THAI |
||
LAO |
||
SHAN |
Saturday
Saturday literally means “Saturn’s day” in English. All have borrowed from the Sanskrit word for ‘Saturn,’ Śani. With the exception of Burmese, all the other languages have reduced the syllabic count to a single syllable in the spoken form. Both Thai and Khmer still spell out the second syllable in the written form. Burmese may have borrowed this word through the spoken form, because the first letter in the Burmese spelling for “Saturday” is traditionally used to transcribe Sanskrit ‘c,’ not ‘s.’
SANSKRIT |
⟶ |
BURMESE |
KHMER |
||
MON |
||
THAI |
||
LAO |
||
SHAN |
The names for days of the week across different languages is a fascinating subject. There’s a lot of overlap in European languages as well. There’s also the question of Why the 7 day week is so ubiquitous.
Reblogged this on Htike Aung Kyaw's Blog.